escapetonewyork.zipContains escape.tafDownload from Delron, author's own website.Requires an ADRIFT version 4 interpreter. Visit the ADRIFT site for download links. (Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.)

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

Escape to New York

About the Story

Your name is Jack Thompson and you are, for want of a better word, a thief. On your latest adventure you have managed to acquire Johnson's 'The Willow Tree', which is worth more than you will be able to spend in a lifetime. With a buyer in New York you need to get there by Thursday 18th April, and as this is 1912 you have booked passage on a ship due to sail on Wednesday 10th April. All being well you should get to New York in plenty of time.

Unfortunately, someone must have squealed on you and before you can get to the ship the police arrive; luck being on your side you just managed to escape. You allow yourself a small smile at the good sense you had to send the 'goods' onto the ship by mail. Your parcel will now be sitting safely in the mailroom of the ship.

Deciding not to go directly to Southampton, as it must be crawling with police, your plan is to try to get over to Ireland and catch the ship there. It will be a close run thing but you should be able to do it. Once again luck is on your side and you just managed to board the ship before it sailed from Queenstown (Ireland now called Cobh) at 2.00pm. The date is Thursday 11th April.

With an uneasy feeling that someone followed you onto the ship, you have been hiding in your cabin as much as possible. Now it is Sunday 14th April 10.30pm and you finally work up the courage to leave your cabin, at this time of night fewer people should be about.

Objectives? Get 'your' painting out of the mailroom, avoid capture and leave the ship as soon as possible. So, the first thing to do is work out how to find your parcel and then how to get it.

Awards

Editorial Reviews

DelronReview CompilationThe game isnít too difficult, but one particularly confusing quirk had me checking the walkthrough. The puzzles make sense and are pretty well clued. Most of hidden items are extras.See the full review

I've had a hard time enjoying Adrift games, either because the parser seems trained for a particular kind of game, or there simply isn't enough weight to the story-bits to create any interest. I realize it's unreasonable prejudice, but I just get a sense of laziness when playing Adrift games.

Escape to New York, fortunately, avoids a lot of those problems. There's a lot of detail, and only a few times did I stumble on unique verbage. It comes with a straightforward map (which can even be displayed in the interpreter!), and its walkthrough does not cause a furrowed forehead, just a few moments of "OH, of course." (I do tend to use walkthroughs a lot.) For what it is, it's fun to play.

I do think that more showing, rather than telling, would help the game itself. There's a lot of stylish details in the room descriptions, but it's as if it's a cataloging, rather than vivid descriptions intended to draw me in (at times, similar problems with '1893'). You can also accomplish some thieving during the game, which is fun, but comes off a little too straightforward at times, it's just a matter of finding things. Most of these problems aren't annoying, really, they're just moments where some good hooks should have been placed. If the author writes another game, I'd love to try it out. And I won't even mind if it's in Adrift.

(Edit: I should note I'm playing through old competitions, and just noted the author does have other games in later compeitions. Looking forward to it!)

Nautical IF by Felix LarssonI know there was a couple of commercial high-sea text adventures. Now I am on the look-out for Ďmoderní, post-commercial IF with a nautical theme. As far as I can tell, there is a definite shortage of bucaneers, boatswains, able seamen...